Weathered rebodied dia. 1/146 HTV Hoppers

We showed off some pictures of the clean rebodied dia. 1/146 21t hoppers a few days ago. To bring the story of this pack up-to-date it seemed only fair to publish some pictures of the weathered ones too.

As can be seen from the pictures, time in traffic has effected the wagons in different ways and especially the degree to which the paint has changed and faded. From top to bottom we have: freight brown hopper with black under-frame; freight brown hopper with brown under-frame and a maroon hopper with black under-frame.

In the last two pictures you can also glimpse the randomised load profiles that have been added to these wagons.

Rebodied HTV Features

Not only have we been working hard on a stack of new models we've also been adding new features to them. We told you about the texture swapping and graffiti that has been applied to the EWS liveried Sea Urchins on Wednesday and are taking the opportunity to share the special features of the Rebodied HTV hoppers today.

You should have noticed from the four pictures above that there are a selection of subtly different data panels applied to the wagons. These panels are applied at random as the wagons are placed in the game and when mixed in with the different weathering levels and liveries produces a nicely mixed rake of wagons.

However, what if you're placing a nice neat row of ex-works wagons? We would expect them all to be lettered the same. This is why we have also included the option to override the randomisation of the data panels if you wish in the Scenario Editor by prefixing the wagon number with a code to choose the panel you want.

In addition to this automatic ability to mix things up a bit we've also developed something that we're calling 'Intelligent Tail Lamps'. In the past we have stuck with producing discrete rear versions of wagons fitted with a tail lamp as we didn't feel that any of the other solutions that had been developed really gave the level of control we wanted.

That was until one of our testers pushed the issue again and a chance comment sparked an idea. With a little bit inspiration, a fair amount of sweat and frustration and possibly a little swearing we have produced the solution that is quoted from the manual below.

The key features of our ‘intelligent’ tail lamp are:

• Player services will display a lamp at the rear end and this will move up and down the train as vehicles are coupled/uncoupled.
• AI services will display a lamp at rear and this should move up and down as vehicles are added or removed in scenarios
• Loose consists should not display any lamps - including portions detached from Player and AI services
• Lamps can be prevented from showing by adding a N prefix to the vehicle number in the scenario editor either before or after the decal override if this is used
• Lamps can be forced to appear in a similar manner by using a Y prefix.
• AI services with a Service Class of ‘Special’ will not display a lamp and this needs to be forced to appear with a prefix
• Loose consists are treated by Train Simulator as ‘Special’, if you wish a tail lamp to appear on one end (or indeed both ends) of such a consist you will need to force it to appear by adding a Y prefix to the relevant wagon(s).
• In a free roam scenario, selecting a consist with a Special type to become the player service will enable the lamps as per a normal service.
• In circumstances where the automatic display of a tail lamp is not desired, for example during shunting manoeuvres in a yard, adding a prefix of N to the vehicle number will prevent a tail lamp from being displayed on that vehicle.
• Conversely, if a tail lamp is required to be displayed and this does not happen automatically, for example a loose consist left in a siding, adding a prefix of Y will force a tail lamp to be displayed on the outer end of that wagon.

When adding prefixes for lamp control and decal overriding the order of those prefixes does not matter.

Dirty EWS Urchins

Last Thursday we showed you some pictures of the clean, recently converted ZCA Sea Urchins. Today it's the turn of the ones that have been in traffic for a while.

The three pictures above show the varying levels of fading, weathering and battering that have been applied to the EWS liveried ZCA Sea Urchins we have modelled for Train Simulator 2016.However, we haven't produced six different weathered models (3 levels on each of the two different under-frames) for you to have to pick and place.

Instead we've used a little bit of technical magic and created just one weathered version that will randomly choose which level of weathering will be displayed. This should mean you can place a string of wagons that look varied and have no repeating pattern of weathering with ease.

Alongside this we're well aware from pictures that some people like to leave their mark on various railway assets and engineers wagons are no exception. If you take a look at the picture at the bottom of this post you'll see a wagon that has gained a few graffiti 'tags' as well as giving a good contrast between different weathering levels compared to the wagons on either side. The graffiti is automatically and randomly applied to the weathered wagons and can range from nothing through one single 'tag' to a plethora on both sides!

Freshly Rebodied Common Hoppers

A while ago we showed you some work in progress renders of a rebodied dia. 1/146 21t coal hopper. As can be seen from these pictures they have progressed nicely and are currently undergoing QA with Dovetail Games as one of our range of wagons under development for Marketplace.

The pictures show three different livery variations that the hoppers received no doubt due to the long rebodying program and the fact that a number of different workshops with possibly their own understanding of things were involved! From top to bottom we have, freight brown with black under frame and running gear; freight brown with brown under frame and black running gear and finally maroon with black under frame and running gear.

If you'd like to read a touch more about the 21t hoppers and their rebodying take a look at this post: Rebodied HTV Render

Sparkling EWS Sea Urchins

A few days ago we announced our range of future expansions which we are developing for distribution via Marketplace. Naturally we didn't start working on the expansions at the time of the announcement but have had to wait until everything was in place before we could share anything.

We're starting off the sharing today with some screenshots taken by the works photographer of some freshly repainted EWS liveried ZCA Sea Urchins. Those of you who have been following our products for a while will know that we had already produced a pack of engineers 'Dutch' liveried Sea Urchins converted from VDA vans and this expansion is a development from it.

We have updated the materials used throughout the models with new shaders along with some extensive reworking of the textures and ambient occlusion maps. In addition to this this we have automated some features of the wagons to reduce clutter in the asset list, as requested in the spring survey, by randomly switching between the two different body types as wagons are placed. The wagons now also feature a variety of different load remnants which appear at random during placement.

The wagons have also been equipped with some other new features but they can wait for when we show you the pictures!